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Handing over Gabe’s pizza and a beer, Lucy turned her attention to me.
Zara grabbed a plate, some pizza and a beer for herself and sat down on the couch, curling her legs under her, just as Lucy was saying, “Matt, you’re best off on the couch next to Zara, because that way you can keep an eye on Bess, make sure she doesn’t steal any pizza.”
“You don’t mind?” I gestured to the space next to her and she shifted over slightly.
“Of course not.” She smiled as I sat down.
Oh God, those dimples.
Between Ally’s quietness and whatever was going on with Jake and Emma, there was a bit of tension in the air as everyone settled in their chairs and tucked into their pizza. Lucy, sitting on the other side of me, got the conversation going by asking Gabe about a landscaping job he’d recently done at a fancy estate on the edge of town. It got better after that, with Jake telling a funny story about the time a client had an actual whale’s penis stored in her garden shed, and how he’d had to climb over it to get through to the back yard.
Finishing my pizza and noticing that Zara had too, I took her plate and stacked it on top of mine, putting them both on the table. Then I leaned back, resting my arm along the back of the couch, acutely aware of how close Zara was. It would take only the tiniest movement for me to have my arm around her. It was ridiculous how much I wanted to do just that. I could almost imagine the feel of brushing my fingers along the back of her neck. She shivered. “Cold?”
“Just a little.”
I leaned across her, her scent filling my head, as I grabbed a log from the ground next to her and tossed it into the fire pit. Sparks flared and the flames danced higher, reflected in the blue depths of her eyes. “Better?” I asked. She nodded wordlessly. She was just so gorgeous, and she was staring at me with such heat flickering in her eyes. I really, really wanted to kiss her. Wanted to do more than kiss her. Feeling my body stirring, I looked away. The last thing I wanted to do was make her uncomfortable or push anything.
“I’ll, uh, just clean up the plates.”
“Can I give you a hand?”
“No, it’s okay, I’ve got it,” she said hastily, pushing to her feet and clearing the table.
“My my my, this is fun, isn’t it?” Lucy murmured quietly to me.
“What do you mean?” I replied, dragging my eyes away from Zara as she walked through the door.
“So much going on.”
“Is there?”
“Duhh, yeah. For starters, we’ve got you and Zara, totally eye banging each other.”
“Jesus Christ, Lucy.”
“And have you noticed how Gabe can’t take his eyes off the lovely Allegra over there? She’s pretending not to notice, but she’s flicking him little sideways looks every other second. And don’t get me started on Jake and Emma…” Lucy trailed off, taking a sip of her beer as she watched them for a few moments.
“What about Jake and Emma?”
“I’m not sure.”
“That’s a first.”
“I worry about them,” she said quietly, “now that Emma’s back.”
I looked at the two of them, sitting side by side, but still facing away from each other. Everything about their body language screameddistance. I remembered a time when it had been very different between them, and it made me feel sad for both of them. “Not much you can do about it.”
“True.”
When Zara came back and sat down, I swore she was sitting closer to me than before. It took all my self-restraint not to put my arm around her and pull her closer still. Almost without thought, I moved my hand, running the tips of my fingers lightly across the bare skin at the top of her shoulder. She froze. When I turned to look at her, I felt the full force of her gaze on me. Her lips were slightly parted, her eyes searching my face. Repeating the movement of my fingertips, I felt myself getting hard when I heard her soft gasp. Jesus, she was just as turned on as I was.
“I think I might head home,” Lucy announced.
“Yeah, think I might do the same. Thanks so much, Zara.”
“You’re welcome, Gabe. It was great everyone stuck around for dinner.”
Everyone started to make a move to leave then, so Zara followed them out the front to say goodbye while I put out the fire. By the time I’d finished, everyone was gone, leaving just myself and Zara standing next to my truck in the dim light of a crescent moon. “Where’s Ally?”
